Sunday, October 10, 2010

Some Ghosts for Halloween

Having grown up playing Gauntlet in the arcades and Castlevania at home, I've always liked the idea of weak but plentiful ghosts that the heroes can strike down with a couple of blows, and without the need for magical weapons.  Basically, immaterial skeleton/zombie level undead baddies.


But of course the ghosts that appear in the AD&D DMG and Companion Set/RC are not what I'm looking for.


So here's a monster write-up for some weaker cannon-fodder ghosts.


Restless Spirit
Armor Class: 5 (15)
Hit Dice: 1* to 3*
Move: Fly 90 (30)
Attacks: 1 touch
Damage: 1d6
No. Appearing: 3-12 (3-18)
Save As: Fighter 1-3
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: U
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 13, 25, or 50

Restless Spirits are animated remnants of souls that are constrained to the mortal realm. They have only the faintest of intelligence, and seek out living beings to feed upon. They are immaterial, and may pass through solid matter such as walls, floors or ceilings to attack. As undead creatures, they are immune to sleep, charm and hold magics. Restless Dead are turned as follows: 1HD as skeletons, 2HD as zombies, 3HD as ghouls.

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Posted by Dennis Laffey at 4:31 PM
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6 comments:

  1. ze buletteOctober 10, 2010 at 5:25 PM

    Huzzah! Very reasonable and appreciated, these atypical D&D ghosts. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MirandaOctober 11, 2010 at 1:43 AM

    Hm... Do you need magic weapons to hit them? I'm assuming not because it doesn't say so and that would greatly decrease their utility as low-level badies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Digital OrcOctober 11, 2010 at 2:29 AM

    Thanks! I may just populate a mansion with these for a one-shot Halloween game.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dennis LaffeyOctober 11, 2010 at 7:37 AM

    Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm thinking of writing up stats for some other Castlevania monsters in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

    Evan--Normal weapons work fine. Like you say, requiring magic weapons would take them out of the low-level skeleton/zombie category. I did think about a 'normal weapons do 1/2 damage, magic weapons do full' thing, but decided against it to keep these guys simple.

    ReplyDelete
  5. JayOctober 12, 2010 at 3:44 AM

    I endorse a regular Castlevania/Gauntlet series!

    I played the shit out of Gauntlet--one of my favorite arcade games ever. Sadly, "playing the shit out of it" often meant, plunking in quarters with scant improvement.

    I remember playing a lot of Demon Stalkers on my C64 though, which was like Gauntlet with a level editor. That's right--you could make our own dungeons!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dennis LaffeyOctober 12, 2010 at 7:55 AM

    Yeah, I think that was the whole point of Gauntlet. It was completely awesome, but a total money sink. Like that guy in Wayne's World says, "As long as the kids keep plunking the quarters in, who gives a shit?"

    I'll need to check out Demon Stalkers. Thanks for the link!

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